


Make You Stay

by prophet_of_troy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Arguing, Eventual James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, F/M, Idiots in Love, Implied Snogging, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Misunderstandings, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26695948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prophet_of_troy/pseuds/prophet_of_troy
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	Make You Stay

He was watching her straighten her clothes, leaning against the wall. How was it, that despite his best efforts, her hair was always just as perfect _after_ they snogged that it did before. Not a wonderful red hair out of place. She was leaving again.

"What have I gotta do to make you stay?" He asked, not realizing until after that it had slipped out and not regretting it in the least.

She stopped, looking back with a look of shock. Her green eyes were wide, so wide, he momentarily envisioned them falling out. "What are you talking about, Potter?"

Potter again. When he was kissing her, he was James. They'd been doing this, secret snogging in closets and old classrooms that he never even told Sirius about, for a year now. But whenever he mentioned going to Hogsmead together, she refused or told him she had plans. Or that date with one of the Prewitt boys that made him want to strangle both of them. Her behavior in front of other people never changed, and he was still an arrogant toerag.

He casually pushed himself away from the wall and started towards her, coincidentally between her and the door of a classroom used for storage. "I mean, Lily, why won't you stay with me. I've asked you out I don't know how many times, I've asked you to marry me at least once a year since third, what is it going to take for you to accept this?"

"It's not going to happen," she told him. In comparison to all the other times she'd said it, this time made him stop and he could almost hear his heart crack.

"Why not?" He asked, neither of them acknowledging the crack in his voice. "I love you."

"You love the idea of me," she said, seeming very matter-of-fact about it. "You love the idea of taming me. You want someone who would be content to just be stay home and be your wife, and I wouldn't be. We would both start to hate each other and wish we'd never done it."

Is that really what she thought of him? "No," he tried to say. "That's not true at all."

"James," she interrupted. "It's okay. I like the snogging, but, that's all it's going to be."

He had been hoping and trying for a year to change her mind, and with all of her refusals, it had only now just occurred to him that he wouldn't be able to. "No," he said as she opened the door to leave.

She stopped. "What do you mean?"

He turned around, ignoring the beginnings of tears. "I can't do it. I can't kiss you knowing that that's all it will ever be. I've been in love with you for seven years, ever since I saw you the first time. I have done everything, but I can't keep doing this to myself."

She didn't say anything, and that was enough. He passed her and walked as calmly and composed as he could until reaching the Gryffindor dorms, ignoring Sirius in the Common Room asking what was wrong as he passed quickly. He rushed up the stairs to their room, warding the door behind him.

For weeks, he didn't mention Lily. He didn't tell them what had upset him or what was wrong. He didn't say much of anything passed jokes and fake smiles that nearly everyone saw straight through. For her part, she seemed fine. She tried to catch his glance a few times, but he looked away each time and left her to Marlene and Dorcas.

On a Tuesday, around two o' clock, nearly two months after their last conversation, they were at dinner. It was almost the end of the year. Graduation. He knew from brief chats between snogs that his Lily-flower was wanting to become a Healer.

She'd be a brilliant one.

He could see her, out of the corner of his eye, laughing at something Mary McDonald had said. But he knew her laughs, and that one was not one of them. That was the one she used when something was bothering her, but she was trying to hide it. It was completely by accident, that she suddenly glanced over and they locked eyes. He quickly, but not quickly enough, snapped his gaze away from her, and watched with bitter glee that her face fell.

She stood, much to the verbal confusion of her friends, and walked around behind people to stand next to him. Sirius nudged him with his foot under the table, nodding to alert him with his head. James wasn't going to look, but he couldn't help it.

She looked angry, and she never looked more beautiful than when she was angry; her hair flung behind her shoulders, her jewel green eyes narrowed, and her hands on her hips. He almost lost his breath at the sight. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. Her hands shot from her hips and grabbed the front of his robes, pulling him close, and giving him a bruising kiss.

It only took him a moment to stand, pulling her close to allow their lips to move together as they had countless times before. And when they _did_ pull away from each other, with a soundtrack of cheers from nearly the entire Gryffindor table- and scattered applause from the others- her eyes glittered at him.

"So," she said. "How many out of the twelve were serious?"


End file.
